OS-neutral: GMA 950 vs X1600 (MacBook vs iMac)

[Goftrey]

Hey everyone, I'm contemplating buying an early Intel iMac (over an iMac G5) purely to run games. I have a late 2006 MacBook & was wondering how much of a performance boost the X1600 provides in gaming via Boot Camp. Thanks.

[The-Pro]

GMA 950 is pretty much as bad as a graphics processor can be. Used a mac with the X1600, and it had double the frame rates and more in most things.
Its still a bad card though.
What games are you planning on running?

On another note, you can get cheap low end gaming computers for the same price (around 200-350). They can run games much better and you can upgrade the GPU etc.

[Goftrey]

Originally Posted by The-Pro

GMA 950 is pretty much as bad as a graphics processor can be. Used a mac with the X1600, and it had double the frame rates and more in most things.
Its still a bad card though.
What games are you planning on running?

On another note, you can get cheap low end gaming computers for the same price (around 200-350). They can run games much better and you can upgrade the GPU etc.

Awesome - that's reassuring, as I've just bought the Intel iMac I won't be playing anything too taxing at all. GTA III, Vice City, San Andreas, Call Of Duty 1/2/3 & maybe 4, RCT3, some truck simulators, and hell I'll give F1 2010 a go. I'm in (was in) the market for a desktop Mac - don't have enough for an '06 Pro & wanted something that'd play a few games via boot camp. I have a 360 & a little HD6450 system for doing more serious stuff, it was just a little bonus I guess. Thanks for the reassuring reply though.

[jchase2057]

Originally Posted by Goftrey

Awesome - that's reassuring, as I've just bought the Intel iMac I won't be playing anything too taxing at all. GTA III, Vice City, San Andreas, Call Of Duty 1/2/3 & maybe 4, RCT3, some truck simulators, and hell I'll give F1 2010 a go. I'm in (was in) the market for a desktop Mac - don't have enough for an '06 Pro & wanted something that'd play a few games via boot camp. I have a 360 & a little HD6450 system for doing more serious stuff, it was just a little bonus I guess. Thanks for the reassuring reply though.

F1 and COD 4 will not run on that thing. Great machine but not cut out for the task.

[Goftrey]

Originally Posted by jchase2057

F1 and COD 4 will not run on that thing. Great machine but not cut out for the task.

Just received the machine today - runs COD4 on ultra low settings at around 20-30fps. Not too shabby. Haven't tried F1 yet, and I'm not expect much either

But it's running the GTAIII series on high settings no issues, as well as as few Steam games. Overall, very pleased with it.

[edddeduck]

Originally Posted by Goftrey

Just received the machine today - runs COD4 on ultra low settings at around 20-30fps. Not too shabby. Haven't tried F1 yet, and I'm not expect much either

But it's running the GTAIII series on high settings no issues, as well as as few Steam games. Overall, very pleased with it.

F1 2012 and most of the new games like Batman Arkham etc will not run on the card. In fact we just block playing on the X1600, if we let you try and load it will just crash or hang as the card is extremely underpowered for a modern machine. IT is LOADS better than a GMA950 though!